


Mother

by pleasesir (tonytonesphoneroo5000), tonytonesphoneroo5000



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Force-Sensitive Shmi Skywalker, Gen, Motherhood, Protectiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-02 20:25:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19448899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tonytonesphoneroo5000/pseuds/pleasesir, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tonytonesphoneroo5000/pseuds/tonytonesphoneroo5000
Summary: Shmi Skywalker has the Force, but her only focus is on her son, and keeping him from becoming a kriffing stuck-up monk.





	Mother

**Author's Note:**

> aka"What If Shmi Skywalker Was Allowed To Have Autonomy" 
> 
> shmi was boring and they cast her so easily aside for plot point reasons. i altered canon a bit here because...i wanted to. basically, shmi has the force, and she's really strong in it. Anakin, the most powerful, has a midichlorian count of 20,000. yoda has one of 17,000. i figured that the mother of the chosen one should be powerful herself.

Shmi can’t remember being free. She was sold by her starving parents when she was a toddler, another mouth to feed that they couldn’t afford. Or, so her first master told her. She was not an attractive child, or a very smart one, so she avoided the brothels and any recognition. Her one true gift was her ability to go unnoticed. 

That, and her ability to read the thoughts of others, to lift objects with her mind. Shmi spent many nights sending the contents of the closet she slept in swirling over her head, copying the patterns of the stars in Tatooine’s skies before she learned what a Jedi was. By then, it was too late, as Shmi became pregnant with Anakin at fourteen, although she’d never been with a man, never had interest in so much as kissing anyone at all. 

She had a gift that she thought was just instinct, for avoiding masters who liked to touch, to prey on their slaves. She’s always been able to hear things without being noticed, and she sees to the heart of people.

Her master went to sell her as soon as the pregnancy was discovered, as a pregnant slave couldn’t be worked as hard as needed. Shmi heard the dark thoughts of the Togrutan male who looked her over, eyes on her swollen stomach, and promised herself she would run and risk the punishment rather than suffer under his hands. 

But it was Watto who eventually bought her from Gardulla, who watched as she sweat and strained to give birth to Anakin. It was Watto who allowed Anakin to have something of a childhood, and Watto who constantly mocked them with their slavery. “You’ll be free when I’m dead,” he would chuckle, knowing that his race regularly lived to be 500, so he was young at only three centuries. 

Shmi raised Anakin best she could, knowing he’s special, knowing he is the only good thing about her life. She waits for Anakin to grow up, to become the strong man she knows he’ll become. Until the Jedi arrive on Tatooine, and everything changes. 

* * *

At first, Shmi barely pays notice to the tall, kind man who comes with the pretty girl and the annoying alien. She has her son to worry about, she doesn’t pay attention to the actions of others unless they directly affect her. 

Then suddenly Anakin is podracing again, winning this time, and Anakin can only look up at Qui-Gon with worshipful eyes. She watches them run tests on her son with excited eyes, lying to her about what exactly he can become-like she’s not aware of how sensitive he is, how he sometimes tells her what’s going to happen days before it actually occurs. Like she can’t sense the endless sands of power that shift underneath his skin. 

Shmi has been a slave for years, and she knows how to steal from all kinds of masters without getting caught. She steals the little device the Jedi used on her son, and tries it on herself. The device flashes and beeps, making Shmi flinch, hiding the device between her thighs. When she dares to look at it again, the monitor reads 18,000. For some reason, this puts a shiver up her spine, but Shmi returns the device to the Jedi’s cloak without incident, and sleeps in her son’s room that night. 

Anakin has always snored, his hot little face pressed into her neck, shoulders still so small. When he was first born, they had to share a bed, Watto being too cheap to buy more than one bed. Every night she feared rolling over, crushing his narrow bones. As soon as she had seen him, Shmi had felt all-encompassing love come over her, and feels it just as strong now, for his pinched mouth, his face that ranges a thousand emotions in an instant, the childlike trust that still shines in his eyes. She had known that she will live and die for her son from the start. 

* * *

Shmi doesn’t trust the Jedi, or their shining silver ship, or the almost proprietary gleam in their eyes when they look at Anakin. But if she and Anakin have the chance to be free...she’ll take it. 

* * *

Watto, of course, refuses to let them both go, insisting on a roll of the dice, the inveterate gambler til the end. As if Shmi would ever be parted from her son. Qui Gon rolls the die with an intent look on his face, distracted at the last moment by a blaster fire in the distance. The die lands on Shmi-of course it does, Watto knows who they really want, and hopes they’ll be willing to pay more for Anakin now. He’ll have loaded the die to fall on her.

But Shmi can tell from Qui Gon’s face that he really doesn’t have the money to pay for Anakin. Anakin, her sweet son, is still smiling at her, congratulatory. “Mom! You’re free!” Shmi reads the fear behind his face, another part of his childhood chipped away. 

“We will keep Shmi, and come back for the boy once we’ve raised the funds,” Qui Gon says slowly. Watto’s face brightens with glee. “Keep the boy safe until then.” 

As if Shmi would leave Anakin behind! As if she’d leave him with only kriffing Watto as a guardian! Watto’s liable to sell him to the Hutts, knowing how valuable Anakin is, sure the Hutt’s will pay him thousands for someone so valuable to the Jedi. Shmi may never see him again.

* * *

That night, the Jedi leave them alone, to say goodbye to each other before the departure. Anakin splays himself over her like he hasn’t since he was very young, sniffling hot tears into her ear that he desperately tries to hide. “I’ll be good when you leave,” he promises. “I won’t annoy Watto.” Shmi rubs his back, heart breaking with the knowledge of what she’s already had to do. 

Because of course, Shmi Skywalker is not leaving her child behind. She makes dinner for Watto every night-the stinking weeds his people consider delicious. Tonight, she added poison. She’s grateful that Watto waits til Anakin is asleep to die. She covers Anakin’s ears while Watto groans and chokes, kisses Anakin’s temple. He sleeps peacefully through the whole thing. Shmi does not.

* * *

In the morning, Shmi goes to Watto’s room where he’s curled like a bug, foam at his lips. She settles his limbs and wipes his mouth, laying him out on his bed. Let it seem like Watto died a peaceful death. 

She leaves Watto’s cold body in his bed and greets the Jedi at the door when they come. It’s Qui Gon, and the pretty girl, Padme. “Watto died last night. Me and Anakin are free-he promised to free us after his death.” If she leaves with the Jedi, Shmi won’t have to fear any repercussions from the slavers. 

She looks up into Qui Gon’s kind, tired eyes and feels a frisson of understanding. “Of course. What a tragedy. Gather Anakin so we can leave.” Anakin, sleepy and excited to the point of breathlessness by being free, doesn’t bother asking questions about what exactly happened to Watto. They leave Tatooine without looking back.

* * *

Anakin sleeps with his head in her lap for the whole trip to Coruscant, snuffling sometimes in his sleep. Shmi watches over him, wraps blankets around his shoulders when they get to the cold city planet. There’s no sand here, no blinding sun. Just tall, glittering buildings. Shmi and Anakin don’t belong here. 

* * *

The Jedi Council is most displeased that Anakin came with a mother. She wonders if any one of them remember their own families. “This is extremely unorthodox, Master Qui Gon,” one of them says. Shmi has her hand on Anakin’s shoulder, feeling him tremble with a mixture of fear and excitement.

“The boy is too powerful to ignore. His midichlorian count is well over 20,000. Even Master Yoda only has 17,000.” Shmi starts with surprise; she had known she had gifts, but this...She’s more powerful than anyone besides Anakin. She feels anger at these Jedi, who don’t bother with the Outer Rim. In a different life, she could have been one of them, one of their most powerful. Instead, she was left to slave. 

They do tests on Anakin that he answers easily, that Shmi answers in her own head. But no one pays attention to the Chosen One’s plain mother, not when the galaxy is in such disarray. 

And what a disarray it is. Shmi doesn’t consider herself to be extremely intelligent, but she can read everyone’s tense expressions, and she has ears. The Jedi are too focused on the Sith to really pay attention to Anakin, their supposed Chosen One. Padme is somewhat better; Shmi recognizes actual concern for Anakin there, and a thirst for justice. But she’s distracted by the planet she has to rule and can’t spend all her time with one little boy, no matter how special. 

Shmi spends most of her time with Anakin instead, learning about this new planet, this new life, together. The Jedi will sometimes come into the lavish rooms they’re being kept in to talk to Anakin about having no emotion or connections, sending meaningful looks in Shmi’s direction. She is clearly supposed to be obedient and remove herself from the situation so that Anakin may be molded in their image. Where is she supposed to go? Back to Tatooine? 

Instead, Shmi wanders the Temple, and eventually, as has always happened, people stop noticing her. She sits in on lessons and lectures with Jedi of all ages. She learns-enough that going back to Tatooine is unthinkable. She will never go back to the blank obedience of a slave, the day in day out grind. She’ll stay with her son, instead. 

* * *

First Qui Gon takes Anakin under his wing, explaining their new life in that patient, kind way of his. Then Qui Gon dies under the blade of a man like no one Shmi’s ever seen before, and Obi-Wan mourns before announcing that Anakin will be his to care for now. As though Shmi didn’t raise him, nurse him, love him with her whole heart! Obi-Wan is likable enough, but Shmi will not let the Jedi take her sweet-natured son and turn him into a kriffing stuck-up monk like the rest of them. 

* * *

The Jedi seem to have no idea what to do with her-Shmi’s been living in a room off the temple while they decide whether Anakin has the ability to be Obi-Wan’s Padawan. Shmi has no time left to wait. She steals a lightsaber from their armory, finds that the hilt seems to sing in her hand. For some time, she stares at the purple blade. Power in its purest form. She decides to take one for Anakin, too. Just in case. 

* * *

Anakin hates this cold planet as much as Shmi does, and he rarely argues with his mother. He likes Obi-Wan well enough, but there’s no real bond there. “Are we leaving?” he asks when Shmi wakes him late at night, as though they’ve only been on a trip and are finally returning home. To Anakin, Tatooine was home, where all his friends were, where he was a podracing champion and had everything he needed. Because Shmi worked for it, scrimped and saved and went without so Anakin would never have a childhood like hers. Now she’s doing it again.

She knows that she could spend the rest of her life being taken care of by the Jedi, who are so stuck in their ways that they’ll never bother getting rid of her. She could even announce her Force abilities, and perhaps the Jedi would train her. But that would mean watching Anakin grow up and grow away from her. 

So Shmi bundles up Anakin, their lightsabers, and some stolen credits before they escape the Jedi Temple forever, Shmi’s heart in her throat the whole time. What will happen if they’re caught? Surely the Jedi won’t kill them. But they might take Anakin away from her, which would be worse.

In a temple full of the most powerful people in the universe, no one notices Shmi Skywalker escape with her son. Anakin’s hand is warm in hers, still so small. Still bigger than the hands that hold the lightsabers that the littlest Younglings practice with. Shmi’s son will not be a warrior. The galaxy can take care of itself; it certainly never took care of Shmi. 

* * *

They’re off planet before the sun rises on the glittering spires of Coruscant, in a dingy ship that probably smuggles for the Hutts or another powerful family. Shmi doesn’t care, confident in her newfound power. She doesn’t welcome fighting, but if anyone challenges her, she’ll cut them down.

At least it’s warm on here, with the engines thrumming beneath their feet and the captain, a woman from a desert planet, insisting on heat that would bother most people. Anakin puts his head on her shoulder. She cut off his Padawan braid as soon as they stepped on the ship, and burned it to ash. It’s only the beginning of the disguises she has planned for them. Who knows what she’ll have to do to hide Anakin from the Jedi? Who knows where they’ll end up? Will the Jedi search for him as strongly as they searched for the Sith? Worse, even?

As if sensing Shmi’s thoughts, Anakin squeezes her hand. When she glances at his face, he’s looking into the distant stars. “It’s going to happen no matter what you do, Mom,” he says in a far off voice. “But it’ll be better now that we’re together again. And Padme will be okay, too.”  
Something sends a shiver up Shmi’s spine, and she knows that Anakin isn’t only looking at the stars anymore. She kisses his forehead and cuddles him against her until he comes out of his trance. No matter what happens, at least they’re together.

In the end, Shmi doesn’t care that Anakin is the Chosen One. First and foremost, he is her son. And Shmi will do anything to protect him.

**Author's Note:**

> after she takes anakin away, she raises him by herself, travelling between planets. everything p much happens as it was supposed to, except that anakin is less angry and conflicted and he does eventually meet padme to have luke/leia and that someone else becomes sidious' apprentice and the death star isn't a thing and those planets don't get destroyed. also the jedi order is stronger but changes in a positive way. idk this has been in my stories to create for years.


End file.
